Siddharth - an inspiration to all....!

Some people are always there as an inspiration for many of us.  Siddharth, my colleague from ABN AMRO Bank (now Royal Bank of Scotland) and our good friend is one among them.

Siddharth suffers from a neurological condition called Cerebral Palsy that affects the coordination between his mind and body. But, it never stopped him from being a successful person and a great human being.

Siddharth Jayakumar is now working for Indusind Bank Ltd as Associate Manager, Trade Ops. and he is a certified 'Documentary Credit Specialist' (CDCS) from Institute of Financial Services, UK & is India’s first CDCS with Cerebral Palsy. He is a recipient of National award in 2008 by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment - The “Best Employee with Cerebral Palsy”.  He was conferred the ‘Lala Kailashpat Singhania Award’ from National Society for Equal Opportunities for Handicapped and the Helen Keller awards in December 2009 for being a positive role model.  Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam expressed his desire to meet him and they met on 2 December 2005.  Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam mentions Siddharth's name in many of the occasions and forums including the World Disability day.  Siddharth is a person who has gained  his own personal triumph over his limitations.  One person who will be remembered for a long time in our lives...!

And I feel his philosophy in life will well fit in my blog’s name “LIVE POSITIVE WAY”!

Few quotes from his speech....

Always defeat the problem. You cannot allow the problem to defeat.

How many of you manage yourself? How do you make your presence felt? How do you make people accept you? That is where the challenge lies for me. I learnt to manage my limitations very well...How can I blame myself for something that is not in my control?

I used to talk very fast that even my parents could not understand me. I realized that and then I put in every effort to talk slow. That is a very painful process because it is not easy to beat your own mind...

I cannot write my own exam. I have to depend on somebody. Once, I had a person who did not even know English to write my history exam. I had to dictate the 3 hour paper letter by letter. I became very stubborn then. I decided to become mentally tough to be able to handle these situations...

It is easy to have a lot of thoughts, but how many can we really implement? Implementation was not very easy for me...I succeeded because I wanted to succeed.

A lot of insensitive people just happened to put me down without understanding my problem. The doctors could not diagnose my problem for 9 years. A school refused to admit me because I was different. If somebody else was in my situation, they would have just given up...

My parents are people who never expected something great out of me. I never passed on any responsibility to my parents. Accepting responsibilities for who you are and accepting whatever result you get for your action, that is what I did. It is very easy for me to blame the system, but blaming the system will make me a loser. After 6 years of my career, I have met a lot of people who cannot come to terms with my ability no matter how much they know me...

I learnt that there is no second opportunity for me. Many people take their opportunities for granted. Every single opportunity I had, I had to grab it and deliver the best I can...

Everyday I think about how I can make myself better!